Archive for November, 2008

The Brits (800,000) regularly use their mobiles to access social networking sites, in second place to the US where four million Americans tap into social networks on their phones. The Ofcom report shows there were 121 mobile phones for every 100 people in the UK last year, the second highest market penetration among the world’s seven top economies - excluding China - after Italy at 154%.

The people who were originally shown the internet when still at school, the 25-34 year olds are driving growth and changing the way the internet is used, according to the latest Mediascope survey. They spend 13.9 hours a week online and half regularly use social networking sites. Consumers are also using the internet more as a research tool before making purchases. In 2004, just 50% of consumers went on to buy something after carrying out research on the internet, that conversion rate is now 87%.

Facebook is planning to start charging for verifying applications built for the social network in a move that has upset some developers. The verifiying process is supposed to help developers get more visibility with users and to increase trust in applications. Developers will need to submit a $375 annual fee for each application, while students and non-profit organisations will be asked to pay $175. Facebook currently has 48,000 applications in its directory and the organisation expects a few hundred to be verified initially.

Baidu, China’s largest internet search engine, is facing fierce criticism for auctioning top result rankings to the highest bidders. Unlike most search engines, Baidu mixes sponsored results with genuine results without clearly differentiating the two. Baidu’s shares fell by 25% last week following criticism of its business model by state-run TV channels. The reports said that searches on cancer and STDs produced fraudulent, unlicensed pharmaceuticals websites as top results. The crisis is benefiting Google, China’s second most popular search engine with around 27.8% share compared to Baidu’s 63.4%.

Two politicians have called for web companies like YouTube to pre-screen videos before they are streamed live to root out “offensive material”. Barbara Follet, the culture minister and her Tory shadow Ed Vaizey have both backed the idea that web providers must be embarrassed into dealing with violent, sexually explicit web content at a Westminster debate on the internet and video games. They would like to see internet service providers rated by the speed with which they remove offensive material.

All Google users will be able to customise their results for the first time with the launch of a new system called SearchWiki, allowing them to personalise by moving results up or down their listings. Users who sign in to the new system will be given the option to let the search engine remember which answers they value most - pushing answers around the rankings, or deleting them from their own search results entirely. Searchers will also be able to make notes next to results which can then be shared with other Google users. Google said that 40% of all queries are repeats of previous searches, meaning that user annotation could prove useful.

A new virtual world, footballsuperstars.com enables internet users to play 5-a-side or 11-a-side in a stadium with a group of other avatars and then retire afterwards to the pub, restaurant or an apartment to discuss the game. The basic service is free but footballers can pay more to buy a new strip of get some football training.The Gartner research group has predicted that by 2011, 80% of active internet users will have avatars.

China has said that if you spend more than six hours a day on the internet then you are an internet addict. They will be the first country in the world to officially recognise internet addiction as a clinical disease. Apparently, several Chinese addiction centres will be offering ‘mild electric shock treatment’ for addicts. The People’s Republic has announced that some four million teenagers are addicted to the internet.

A new deep web search engine has launched called deepdyve.com, which claims to access the deep web, or the technical publications, databases, academic journals and other proprietary information that users won’t find in a typical search on Google, Yahoo or Microsoft. Wired magazine quoted a study from Berkeley that placed the deep Web at more than 10 times the size of the visible Web. DeepDyve partners directly with major publishers to gain access to content that today’s search engines don’t cover. Deepdyve used to be called Infovell and offered a subscription search service for researchers. This premium service will still exist.

Both Google and Microsoft are investing huge amounts in lobbying the powers-that-be in Washington, according to an article in the International Herald Tribune. The software giant’s tab of almost $2 million for the third quarter alone nearly equalled the amount its rival Google Inc. spent in the first nine months of the year. But Google already has spent more on lobbying this year ($2.1m) than it did for all of 2007 ($1.5m) as the Internet search company starts to emerge as a formidable player in D.C. lobbying circles.Google opened its Washington office in 2005 and Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt endorsed President-elect Barack Obama during the campaign.